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LAILA:Our daughter is sleeping in here.
I take a deep breath, but my hands ball into fists all the same. She’s infuriating. And exciting.
She’s mind-boggling and frustrating as hell—and so utterly fucking irresistible that I feel like my brain is melting.
“Fine. We’ll talk tomorrow then.”
No answer—in text form or otherwise—but I can see her shadow shift across the crack at the bottom of the door. She’s still standing there, waiting for me to walk away.
“Thank you for coming with me,” I add softly, certain she can hear me.
Her shadow doesn’t move. I take that as a good sign.
“And, by the way—” I press a hand to the door. “—you looked beautiful tonight.”
17
LAILA
“He’ssuingme?!”
I shake the court summons Polina just handed me like it’s an Etch-a-Sketch. If I do it hard enough, will it disappear?
“Who’s suing you?” Guilia asks, leaning forward to see.
In hindsight, I’m not sure it was the best idea to open my mail in front of a guest, much less a new ally’s wife. But the ship has sailed. Also, I like Guilia.
“My dad.”
In a different crowd, that would’ve earned an eyebrow raise, but Guilia isn’t fazed in the least. “What for?”
“A house.Myhouse. My mother got it in the divorce. But now that she’s gone?—”
“You’re mourning, and he’s coming for your house? Vulture!” Guilia gasps. “Petty, selfish vulture!”
“Oh, so you’ve met my dad already?” I ask sarcastically.
Guilia rests her hand on my knee. “There’s a clean and simple way of taking care of this problem, Laila.”
“I’m all ears.”
“I mean, what’s the point of having powerful husbands if we don’t use them? The man would disappear and so would that—” She gestures towards the paper in my hand. “—nonsense that it is.”
I blink. And blink. And blink. “You’re suggesting that I ask Arsen to…?”
I’m speechless. Can’t even finish the sentence.
Thankfully, Polina chimes in from the corner where she’s rocking Nina. “I’m not sure that’s how Laila wants to deal with this particular dilemma, G.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Guilia flushes. “I assumed you had a bad relationship with your father.”
“I do.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
This woman is serious. She’s talking about taking someone out the way I’d talk about putting bread on my grocery list.
“We have a bad relationship, but that doesn’t mean— I don’t want to kill him!”
